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Mess with the bull…

As the Illinois Legislature searches for ways to provide taxpayers relief, everything must be on the table.

That is why I have introduced House Bill 261, which will remove the state unfunded mandate requiring local units of government to publish public notices in newspapers. HB 261 will save local units of government and taxpayers’ money by allowing public notices to be placed on government websites instead of in newspapers. […]

One quick example that happens all over Illinois: Boone County spent more than $17,000 in 2013 on assessment publications for property taxpayers who had an assessed value change. That’s $17,000 to publish assessment information. Currently, a resident receives notification in the mail of changes in assessed value and Boone County has property assessment information on their website every day.

We should not financially punish local governments that are accountable and transparent to their taxpayers; therefore, why do we require local governments to pay more to put this information in the newspaper that will be published and viewable only once?

The answer is the newspapers lobby. Yes they have lobbyists in Springfield looking to get their cut of taxpayer money. The newspaper lobby claims they are increasing accountability and transparency by fighting for these types of notices to be filed in the paper. Articles written by some journalists claim my proposal will decrease government transparency. That is utterly false.

The only thing that will be affected is the profits of newspapers. It’s not the taxpayer’s responsibility to keep newspapers afloat. If we are being serious, how many of us are avidly searching their local weekly newspaper to find a fire protection district budget, school annual statement of affairs, taxpayer property ID numbers, etc.? If you miss it, it is not printed again, whereas if the notice was posted online it would be available all the time and readily available for public viewing.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Mar 3, 15 @ 12:20 pm

Comments

I agree that the publishing of notices in the classifieds is outdated, but blaming a “special interests” is becoming the new way to promote a policy. Why not just promote the policy as a change whose time has come…why the need to blame someone for the old way sticking around too long?

Agree 100%. I can’t remember the last time I looked at the public notice section in a newspaper. If I need information, I go online and find it. Time to end this taxpayer subsidy of the newspaper business.

He speaks the truth, the downside is that I suspect for some newspapers the government required publication as it were is the only thing keeping them going, which I suspect prevents them from digging to hard into local government.

Kudos to Rep Sosnowski. If his bill passes, Boone County will only need to find $928,000 in additional cost savings or tax hikes to make up for the 50 percent reduction in LGDF the Governor has proposed.

The attack on the newspaper lobby is 100% correct. Fifteen years ago, I worked for a up and coming politician who proposed the same thing. I received a call from the president of the Illinois Press Association. He told me in no uncertain terms that my boss would never receive a favorable editorial or endorsement again if he pushed this idea. It was that pointed.

Our municipal government already posts this info on the website. Striking the requirement to publish in the paper will in now way impose added work or cost. The only difference is that no one will have to email the info to the paper and follow it up with a check.

Also, no one is saying you can’t put notices in papers, but it would no longer be a legal requirement. If newspapers are best for your community, keep doing it.

Government subsidizes all sorts of private endeavors. Ever heard of a TIF? And that’s just the tif, so to speak, of the iceberg.

When operated properly (and that’s key), newspapers play a vital role in society by informing and educating people. I don’t have a problem with government “subsidizing” them in this way. I’d way rather have tax dollars going to newspapers than political insiders who profit from insider deals, which newspapers, when operated properly, help expose, or even prevent in the first place. Of course, this all goes out the window if a newspaper is not a good one, and there are plenty of bad newspapers around, probably more bad newspapers than good ones. But we would all be worse off if there were no newspapers at all. I don’t think that’s a debatable point.

And it may surprise folks, but I know people who do read legal notices in newspapers, every day and word for word. There are not many of them, sure. But they pay taxes, too.

If you are that interested in public meetings then check the internet frequently. We live in the digital age now. Have for some time now. The internet is the way the world communicates. Get on the train or get left behind.

I tend to agree with Pot calling kettle - demonizing degrades what appears to be a sound position on an issue. I do think it would be helpful to keep a daily printed record of which units have posted public records and the url address of said posting. Many poor, older, and often rural members of the community use printed circulations to keep track of county and municipal government and completely shifting them to “google” seems a bit harsh. Scale it back - yes, but understand the limitations of technology as well I say.

This is absolutely a great idea. LG’s can post this on their website and/ or publish notification that the information is available . If they choose to continue to publish notices that most people never read in the mewspaper, so be it at their expense.

I see both sides to the proposal. That said, if this passes, local governments should no longer force property owners to pay for ads and mailings notifying the public of proposed zoning changes, and instead, the notices should only be placed on the internet. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

JPK 779, this is interesting information. However, the cost and effectiveness could still be an issue in my book.

I see the impressive site through your link, but how is an ordinary taxpayer going to find it. Just out of curiosity I tried to find a path to it from the State website and the Sangamon County website. I didn’t find one on either site. While centralization is fine, when I have a question about property taxes I go to my county website.

I have elderly friends who always read public notices but they don’t have Internet access. Also, if you check your local library you’ll see that many of our younger neighbors don’t have it, either.

Not only that, but many local governments don’t have websites, townships especially. What would they do? And of the local governments that do have websites, many are horrible when it comes to accessibility and/or navigation, so are we going to give the AG more money to enforce the posting requirements?

And are we really saying we want to visit six or seven websites a week to keep tabs on local government?

+And are we really saying we want to visit six or seven websites a week to keep tabs on local government? +

In a word, Yes. This is what we do for some FOIA. If it is on our webpage you have to go there to get it. The democratic process is an active process. One should not expect it to be laid at your feet. Our savings in the last year alone would have been $7,000. That is the lease cost on one bus. Our role is not to provide funding for news papers but an effective and efficient process.

The same people that complain about taxes are apparently the ones who do not have a problem with added expense that are unnecessary for most people just not them.

can I be for both? shortened versions in the paper and the full version on line.

it may be newspaper welfare, but the more that we take print out of the everyday lives, boxes, corners of people, the less connected we become and the more controlled by one outlet, probably the Chicago Tribune. more outlets that exist create chances for differing opinions. besides, the point is for people to kind of run into the information. if we just put it on the web site of the government, that requires everyone to keep checking the government website. and while some may, and should, do that, it is not regular people bumping into information that maybe we want more people to have. kind of like how zoning changes are frequently posted on signs of the place asking for the zoning change. we want more people to know. just the government website is less transparent.

the both and answer is to do both the website and the newspaper, in shortened form.

What some commenters seem to be missing is that not all public notices are about public meetings. Some are directed at specific individuals and directly affect the rights of those individuals, parental rights, for example, in situations where the person would have no way of knowing that there is any reason for him to check an agency website.

This makes a lot of sense for property assessment information. For other things there may be some value in having a notice of record not controlled by a government and widely disseminated rather than requiring it be sought out. How knows, one day the Vogan Fleet may show up.

If a local paper’s survival is based upon these revenues, then it is only a matter of time before they close shop anyway. Its sad, very sad, but I don’t subscribe to my local paper so who I am to complain.

What many fail to recognize is how incredibly prescriptive the publication laws are. In example, the legals must be set in no less than 11-12 pt text. I had unilaterally newspapers set it in 16pt text to take advantage of the extra column inches added to the ad. In addition, most legals are at rates far above the normal commercial rates. This has been an all-too-legal boondoggle for much too long!

What about the cost to election authorities to publish election notices, specimen ballots, and other election related information. County Treasurer have costs related to property tax payers who fail to pay their tax bills.

I can see a distinct difference between court-ordered legal notices such as bankruptcy, foreclosure notices, etc. versus local governmental budget ordinances, treasurer reports and the like. Maybe the Illinois Treasurer/Comptroller (combine them please) should expand its already existing portal for local governmental financial data.

Why should the public be notified of potential governmental action? After all, the government knows what is best for you. So just shut up and let the government do as it pleases, with no notice or opportunity for the citizen to be heard.